I always thought it was funny how many people got suckered into believing Bernkastel was going to be a ‘good guy’, simply because of Rika. She makes it very clear from her first appearance that she’s only here to pass the time, to crush Beato, and that she’s the cruelest witch there is.
Yeah, at first it seems like her interests align with Battler’s, since they both want to destroy Beatrice…but even if you never expected Beato to end up the way she did, it should have probably been a red flag that Bernkastel might become another enemy down the line as well.
Hell, even in Higurashi, the ‘higher-level Rika’ that we know to have become Bern was a lot more insensitive and cruel, even if she looked like our Rika. Her concept of right and wrong had already long since developed beyond human understanding.
Bern was never going to be someone trustworthy. It’s not like it was even meant to be a twist, with Ryukishi trying to lull the readers into a false sense of security because she was a familiar character. It was abundantly clear from the very start that Bernkastel was Beato’s enemy – and even though Beato invited her to this world, she was going to do everything in her power to crush her, and anyone else that tried to stand in her way.
The end of Episode 4 was not a surprise. It was an inevitability.
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